History of American Socialisms Part 53

The malcontent who gives an account of the Trumbull Phalanx says: "Some came with the idea that they could live in idleness at the expense of the purchasers of the estate, and these ideas they practically carried out; while others came with good hearts for the cause. There were one or two designing persons, who came with no other intent than to push themselves into situations in which they could impose upon their fellow members; and this, to a certain extent, they succeeded in doing." And again: "I think most persons came there for a mere s.h.i.+ft. Their poverty and their quarreling about what they called religion (for there were many notions as to which was the right way to heaven), were great drawbacks to success."

There were rival leaders in the Ohio Phalanx, and their respective parties quarreled about const.i.tutions till they got into a lawsuit which broke them up. The member who gave the account of this a.s.sociation says: "The most important causes of failure were said to be the deficiency of wealth, wisdom and goodness."

The Clermont Phalanx had jealousies among its women that led to a lawsuit; and a difficulty with one of its leading members about land-t.i.tles.

The story of the Alphadelphia Phalanx is briefly told thus: "The disagreement with Mr. Tubbs about a mill-race at the commencement of the experiment, threw a damper on it, from which it never recovered.

All lived in clover so long as a ton of sugar or any other such luxury lasted. The officers made bad bargains. Laborers became discouraged.

In the winter some of the influential members went away temporarily, and thus left the real friends of the a.s.sociation in the minority; and when they returned after two or three months absence, every thing was turned up-side-down. There was a manifest lack of good management and foresight. The old settlers accused the majority of this, and were themselves elected officers; but they managed no better, and finally broke up the concern."

The Wisconsin Phalanx kept its quarrels below lawsuit point, but the leading member who gives account of it, says that the habit of the members was to "scold and work, and work and scold;" and that "they had among their number a few men of leading intellect who always doubted the success of the experiment, and hence determined to acc.u.mulate property individually by any and every means called fair in compet.i.tive society. These would occasionally gain some important positions in the society, and representing it in part at home and abroad, caused much trouble. By some they were accounted the princ.i.p.al cause of the final failure."

Mr. Daniels, a gentleman who saw the whole progress of the Wisconsin Phalanx, says that "the cause of its breaking up was speculation, the love of money and the want of love for a.s.sociation. Their property becoming valuable, they sold it for the purpose of making money out of it."

The North American was evidently shattered by secessions, resulting partly from religious dissensions and partly from differences about business.

Brook Farm alone is reported as harmonious to the end.

It should be observed that the foregoing disclosures of disintegrating infirmities were generally made reluctantly, and are necessarily very imperfect. Large departments of dangerous pa.s.sion are entirely ignored. For instance, in all the memoirs of the Owen and Fourier a.s.sociations, not a word is said on the "Woman Question!" Among all the disagreements and complaints, not a hint occurs of any jealousies and quarrels about love matters. In fact women are rarely mentioned; and the terrible pa.s.sions connected with distinction of s.e.x, which the Shakers, Rappites, Oneidians, and all the rest of the religious Communities have had so much trouble with, and have taken so much pains to provide for or against, are absolutely left out of sight.

Owen, it is true, named marriage as one of the trinity of man's oppressors: and it is generally understood that Owenism and Fourierism both gave considerable lat.i.tude to affinities and divorces; but this makes it all the more strange that there was no trouble worth mentioning, in any of these Communities, about crossing love-claims.

Can it be, we ask ourselves, that Owen had such conflicts with whiskey-tippling, but never a fight with the love-mania? that all through the Fourier experiments, men and women, young men and maidens, by scores and hundreds were tumbled together into unitary homes, and sometimes into log-cabins seventeen feet by twenty-five, and yet no s.e.xual jostlings of any account disturbed the domestic circle? The only conclusion we can come to is, that some of the most important experiences of the transitory Communities have not been surrendered to history.

Nevertheless the troubles that do come to the surface show, as we have said, that human depravity is the dread "Dweller of the Threshold,"

that lies in wait at every entrance to the mysteries of Socialism.

Shall we then turn back in despair, and give it up that a.s.sociation on the large scale is impossible? This seems to have been the reaction of all the leading Fourierists. Greeley sums up the wisdom he gained from his socialistic experience in the following invective:

"A serious obstacle to the success of any socialistic experiment must always be confronted. I allude to the kind of persons who are naturally attracted to it. Along with many n.o.ble and lofty souls, whose impulses are purely philanthropic, and who are willing to labor and suffer reproach for any cause that promises to benefit mankind, there throng scores of whom the world is quite worthy--the conceited, the crotchety, the selfish, the headstrong, the pugnacious, the unappreciated, the played-out, the idle, and the good-for-nothing generally; who, finding themselves utterly out of place and at a discount in the world as it is, rashly conclude that they are exactly fitted for the world as it ought to be. These may have failed again and again, and been protested at every bank to which they have been presented; yet they are sure to jump into any new movement as if they had been born expressly to superintend and direct it, though they are morally certain to ruin whatever they lay their hands on. Dest.i.tute of means, of practical ability, of prudence, tact and common sense, they have such a wealth of a.s.surance and self-confidence, that they clutch the responsible positions which the capable and worthy modestly shrink from; so responsibilities that would tax the ablest, are mistakenly devolved on the blindest and least fit. Many an experiment is thus wrecked, when, engineered by its best members, it might have succeeded."

Meeker gloomily concludes that "generally men are not prepared; a.s.sociation is for the future."

And yet, to contradict these disheartening persuasions and forbid our settling into despair, we have a respectable series of successes that can not be ignored. Mr. Greeley recognizes them, though he hardly knows how to dispose of them. "The fact," he says, "stares us in the face that, while hundreds of banks and factories, and thousands of mercantile concerns managed by shrewd, strong men, have gone into bankruptcy and perished, Shaker Communities, established more than sixty years ago, upon a basis of little property and less worldly wisdom, are living and prosperous to-day. And their experience has been imitated by the German Communities at Economy, Zoar, the Society of Ebenezer, etc. Theory, however plausible, must respect the facts."

Let us look again at these exceptional a.s.sociations that have not succ.u.mbed to the disorganizing power of general depravity. Jacobi's record of their duration and fortunes is worth recapitulating.

a.s.suming that they are all still in existence, their stories may be epitomized as follows:

Beizel's Community has lasted one hundred and fifty-six years; was at one time very rich; has money at interest yet; some of its grand old buildings are still standing.

The Shaker Community, as a whole, is ninety-five years old; consists of eighteen large societies; many of them very wealthy.

Rapp's Community is sixty-five years old, and very wealthy.

The Zoar Community is fifty-three years old, and wealthy.

The s...o...b..rger Community is forty-nine years old and "well off."

The Ebenezer Community is twenty-three years old; and said to be the largest and richest Community in the United States.

The Janson Community is twenty-three years old and wealthy.

The Oneida Community (frequently quoted as belonging to this cla.s.s) is twenty-one years old, and prosperous.

The one feature which distinguishes these Communities from the transitory sort, is their religion; which in every case is of the earnest kind which comes by recognized afflatus, and controls all external arrangements.

It seems then to be a fair induction from the facts before us that earnest religion does in some way modify human depravity so as to make continuous a.s.sociation possible, and insure to it great material success. Or if it is doubted whether it does essentially change human nature, it certainly improves in some way the _conditions_ of human nature in socialistic experiments. It is to be noted that Mr. Greeley and other experts in socialism claim that there _is_ a cla.s.s of "n.o.ble and lofty souls" who are prepared for close a.s.sociation; but their attempts have constantly been frustrated by the throng of crotchety and selfish interlopers that jump on to their movements. Now it may be that the tests of earnest religion are just what are needed to keep a discrimination between the "n.o.ble and lofty souls" and the scamps of whom the Socialists complain. On the whole it seems probable that earnest religion does favorably modify both human depravity and its conditions, preparing some for a.s.sociation by making them better, and shutting off others that would defeat the attempts of the best.

Earnest men of one religious faith are more likely to be respectful to organized authority and to one another, than men of no religion or men of many religions held in indifference and mutual counteraction. And this quality of respect, predisposing to peace and subordination, however base it may be in the estimation of "Individual Sovereigns,"

and however worthless it may be in ordinary circ.u.mstances, is certainly the indispensable element of success in close a.s.sociation.

The logic of our facts may be summed up thus: The non-religious party has tried a.s.sociation under the lead of Owen, and failed; the semi-religious party has tried it under the lead of Fourier, and failed; the thoroughly religious party has not yet tried it; but sporadic experiments have been made by various religious sects, and so far as they have gone, they have indicated by their success, that earnest religion may be relied upon to carry a.s.sociation through to the attainment of all its hopes. The world then must wait for this final trial; and the hope of the triumph of a.s.sociation can not rationally be given up, till this trial has been made.

The question for the future is, Will the Revivalists go forward into Socialism; or will the Socialists go forward into Revivalism? We do not expect any further advance, till one or the other of these things shall come to pa.s.s; and we do not expect overwhelming victory and peace till both shall come to pa.s.s.

The best outlook for Socialism is in the direction of the local churches. These are scattered every where, and under a powerful afflatus might easily be converted into Communities. In that case Communism would have the advantage of previous religion, previous acquaintance, and previous rudimental organizations, all a.s.sisting in the tremendous transition from the old world of selfishness, to the new world of common interest. We believe that a church that is capable of a genuine revival, could modulate into daily meetings, criticism, and all the self-denials of Communism, far more easily than any gathering by general proclamation for the sole purpose of founding a Community.

If the churches can not be put into this work, we do not see how Socialism on a large scale is going to be propagated. Exceptional a.s.sociations may be formed here and there by careful selection and special good fortune; but how general society is to be resolved into Communities, without some such transformation of existing organizations, we do not pretend to foresee. Our hope is that churches of all denominations will by and by be quickened by the Pentecostal Spirit, and begin to grow and change, and finally, by a process as natural as the transformation of the chrysalis, burst forth into Communism.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

DEDUCTIVE AND INDUCTIVE SOCIALISMS.

It is well for a theory to be subjected to the test of adverse criticism. Particularly in matters of contemporaneous history the public are interested to hear all sides. We have presented in this book our estimate of the French and English schools of Socialism; but as the reader may deem a Communist's judgment of the Phalansterian school necessarily defective, we are happy to insert here a communication from Mr. Brisbane himself, presenting a partizan's defence of Fourier. It was received and printed in the _Circular_, just as the last chapters of our history of Fourierism were preparing,

"FOURIER AND THE ATTEMPTS TO REALIZE HIS THEORY.

"_To the Editor of the Circular_:

"Will you allow me s.p.a.ce in your journal to say that no practical trial, and no approach to one, has as yet been made of Fourier's theory of Social Organization. A trial of a theory supposes that the practical test is made in conformity with its principles; otherwise there is no trial. Let generous minds who are working for the social redemption of their race, be just to those who have labored conscientiously for this great end. Let them be just to Fourier, who, in silence during a long life strove to solve the great problem of the organization of society on a scientific basis, neglecting every thing else--the pursuit of fortune, the avenue to which was more than once open to him--and position and reputation in society.

"Fourier says: There are certain _Laws of Organisation_ in nature, which are the source of order and harmony in creation.

These laws human reason must discover and apply in the organization of society, if a true social order is to be established on the earth. The moral forces in man, called sentiments, faculties, pa.s.sions, etc., are framed or fas.h.i.+oned, and their action determined, in accordance with these laws. They tend naturally to act in conformity with them, and would do so, if not thwarted. If the Social Organization, which is the external medium in which these forces operate, is based on those laws, it will, it is evident, be adapted to the forces--to the nature of man. This will secure their true, natural and harmonious development, and with it the solution of the fundamental problem of social order and harmony. In organizing society on its true basis, begin, says Fourier, with Industry, which is the primary and material branch of the Social Organization. By the natural organization of Industry the productive labors of mankind will be _dignified and rendered attractive_; wealth will be increased ten-fold, so that abundance will be secured to all, and with abundance, the means of education and refinement, and of social equality and unity.

When refinement and intelligence are rendered general, the superstructure of society will be built under the favorable circ.u.mstances which such a work requires.

"Briefly stated, such is Fourier's view. In his works he describes in detail the plan of Industrial Organization. He explains the laws of organization in Nature (as he understands them), on which Industry is to be based. He takes special pains to give minute directions in relation to the subject, and warns those who may undertake the work of organization, to avoid mistakes--some of which he points out--that may easily be made, and would vitiate the undertaking.

"The little a.s.sociations started in this country, of which you have given an account, had for their object the realization of Fourier's industrial system. Now, instead of avoiding the mistakes which he warned his followers against making, not one of those a.s.sociations realized _a single one of the conditions_ which he laid down. Not one of them had the tenth, nor the twentieth part of the means and resources--pecuniary and scientific--necessary to carry out the organization he proposed.

In a word, no trial, and no approach to a trial of Fourier's theory has been made. I do not say that his theory is true, or would succeed, if fairly tried. I simply affirm that _no trial_ of it has been made; so that it is unjust to speak of it, as if it had been tested. With ample, that is, vast resources, and some years to prepare the domain, erect buildings, and make all necessary arrangements, so as to thoroughly prepare the field of operations before the members or operators entered, then with men of organizing capacity to test fairly the principles which he has laid down, a fair trial could be made.

"I repeat, let us be just to those who have labored patiently and conscientiously for the social elevation of humanity.

Fourier's was a great soul. To a powerful intellect he added n.o.bility and goodness of heart. Clear, exact, strict and scientific in thought, he was at the same time kind and philanthropic in feeling. Impelled by n.o.ble motives, he devoted his intellect to the most important of works, to the discovery of the natural principles of social organization. Such a man deserves to be treated with profound respect. Infantile attempts to realize his ideas should not, in their failure, be charged upon him, covering him with the ridicule or folly attached to them. Let him stand on his Theory. That is his intellectual pedestal. Let those who undertake to judge him, study his Theory. When they overthrow that they will overthrow him.

"I will close by stating my estimate of Fourier, which is the result of some reflection.